Looking for illustrations/cartoons from the late 50's/early 60's in a 'sophisticated' yet naiive style.

April 25, 2008 5:04 AM

I'm trying to design an invitation to a combined housewarming/40th birthday party (two separate people) and I want some pictures on the invitation which are in the style of 'sophisticated' but also kind of naiive late 50's/early 60's illustrations/cartoons but I'll be damned if I can google search what I'm looking for. Can you help?

This may be terribly imprecise because that's my problem when it comes to the searching but I thought I'd try to explain what I want to you good people and you can tell me what this style is so I can look for the exact illustrations I want (direct links to what I'm looking for because you are awesome are also welcome).

It's the kind of thing you'd see in the animated credits to a Doris Day movie. Stylized women with pointy elbows. Little stars and chevrons and things. I'm thinking of a house with flames and a pointy-elbowed woman with curly hair going 'ah!' and a sophisticated long-haired woman holding a martini glass and throwing her head back and laughing throatily.

Can you see what's in my head? Please help!

posted by h00py to media & arts (7 comments total)

50s fonts isn't what you're looking for, but might be useful.
posted by Leon at 5:22 AM on April 25, 2008

iStock's got quite a few cute pointy-elbow thingies, i searched for 50's illustrations, this one is quite cute especially and this one. Also, Flickr might prove a helpful resource, here are some screengrab's from fun 50's ads, and a Flickr search for 50's illustration has some good stuff too. In fact, it looks like there's a series of illustrations from a home decorating book that could be quite cool for printing out and scattering around for the housewarming part of the party.
posted by ukdanae at 6:09 AM on April 25, 2008

It sounds like you're just looking for retro/vintage clip art. A google search for "retro +clipart +50" gave some of the following links. Another idea would be to search for vintage ad art.

flames, woman in costume w/ a martinie

starbursts & more

Woman with a martini

free retro clipart
posted by belladonna at 6:15 AM on April 25, 2008

I believe, without being able to check just now, that The New Yorker has a cartoon and/or a cover illustration archive. You might find some inspiration there.
posted by Guy_Inamonkeysuit at 6:53 AM on April 25, 2008

I know exactly what is in your head, as I wanted exactly that style for invitations I was doing for a party last year. Belladonna's last link, retrographix.com, was the best free resource I found, but the "women" category is sadly lacking.
posted by Rock Steady at 7:43 AM on April 25, 2008

How's this? Maybe not classy enough, but so festive.
posted by The corpse in the library at 2:02 PM on April 25, 2008

Shag?
posted by elmwood at 6:58 AM on May 6, 2008